The Battle Of The Ages
by MatrixFan10121
Summary: Something deep and sinister is brewing deep within the Borg Collective, a mystery that Picard is determined to figure out, only until the most massive battle erupts and war breaks out with the Borg at the helm. Prologue up! Please please R
1. Prologue: Strange Visions

The Battle of the Ages

Prologue: Strange Visions

Pipes. Pipes and wiring everywhere, all with a silver metallic look. They were everywhere, all around him, they seemed to be alive.

At once Captain Jean-Luc Picard knew where he was as he walked into a familiar space, still harshly silver, and stared into a face which he knew all to well. He was in the Borg Queen's main archive, located in a top secret place. The room may have been familiar, with its cold and dank atmosphere, but the equipment and electronics were all new to him. To his right he saw a flat and hard bed with green wires all around it and needles jutting up through various, but obviously well-thought out, places. At the tip of the bed was a sort of head band with green electrical currents running around the edges of the band. To his left he saw a chair that was reminiscent of the old electric chair, but instead of being made out of wood, it was constructed of twisted steel and metal. Plastic pipes protruded from the arm rests, apparently see-through, and made to support whatever was meant to sit in that chair, but for what reason? Up at the tip of the chair, where the head is obviously supposed to rest, there were what appeared to be long (about one foot long) and bendable screwdriver looking mechanisms. All of this in addition to a dark green glow, electrical current, flowing throughout the chair. The only other oddity of difference that he noticed was the piping above him. Certain sections of it were not green or grey or silver, but rather they were of a dark red nature. Red was a color that was not commonly associated with the Borg, so this was indeed unusual. Strangely, Picard recognized that shade of red, but couldn't quite place it.

"Welcome, Locutus," shot a voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere. It was a voice Picard knew well. He stood in silence assome wires and electronics came together to form the queen of the Borg collective. In her usual sultry and seductive way she approached him and leaned in, coming abnormally close to Picard's face as if to kiss him. Instead of kissing him, she blew very softly onto his lips, which sent a cold chill down his spine as hundreds upon thousands of memories flooded through his brain. After about ten seconds she pulled back and looked at him for a while, with that seductive half-smile on her face.

"You will be mine soon…once more and we shall be joined together again," she whispered softly.

She started to walk around him slowly, as if examining him.

"See anything new," she asked of him?

Picard stood in silence, pondering the question.

"Oh come on Locutus," she snapped, "give me some input. Or is it too much for your frail human brain to process?"

After a little while, Picard finally opened his mouth: "Why am I here?"

"Your petty little brain's capacity has palpably reached its limit," she said in apparent disbelief, "Why do you even ask the question, when you know why it is that you are here?"

Feeling more determined, Picard replied: "Can't you understand? Locutus is gone, finished, a thing of the past. I refuse to give into you little mind games."

"Don't be so sure of yourself," she replied in her usual tone, "Whether you refuse or not is no longer up to you, for I hold the ace in this particular situation and you will soon find out that there is a fate awaiting you that you cannot, even in your wildest of dreams, attempt to prevent or stop from coming."

She forced a twisted smile and waited for his response.

"What is all of this," he asked after a while?

Pleased with the question, she replied: "I am sure that by now you have heard of the microchips that are becoming standard regulation for every Starfleet officer to have implanted. It activates as soon as one is assimilated or comes into any direct contact with our neutralizers and rids that person of all of their past memories that might give us any information or any advantage over Starfleet. Quite ingenious I must say, even by my standards. These new devices you see around you in here are a new breed of torture, only the most brutal. They are designed to tap into the brain of the vessel with which we contain and to extract key memories in order that the person might remember something. But for that we need a certain access code for the chip… One that I know that only you and select others hold. It is said to be indecipherable, we shall see about that."

With that Picard started to grow faint, and started to stumble from his dizziness. The last words he heard were: "You will surrender to us soon", as he woke up in his quarters from the evident dream that he had just had. Or was it a dream?

He sat up in his bed and realized that he was sweating profusely from head to toe. He sat and pondered what he had just heard for a while, attempting to determine whether or not it was a dream.

Then suddenly without any warning, his communicator beeped and in came commander Riker's voice which said:

"Captain Picard, we need you down here in the bridge immediately. I really think that you need to hurry up and take a look at this, Riker out."

With no second thoughts, Picard darted out of the door and headed towards the bridge. He was hoping that this did not have anything to do with the Borg. He grew more and more nervous as he entered the turbolift and headed upwards for the main bridge. Once he had arrived he had found everybody's eyes fixed on the screen in front of him. What he saw almost made him stumble back into the turbolift. There was an evidently alien ship passing by that did not look the least bit familiar.

"This ship is unlike anything that we have encountered before," came Data's voice from the 1'st Officer's chair. "The amount of nitric acid and fluidic substances that they appear to be trailing as well as the ship's excellent hull design suggest that they are not from anywhere around here."

"How did they get here so fast and undetected" asked Picard?

Apparently everybody else was just as confused as he was as they sat in silence.

"Scan them," ordered Picard.

"Already tried," replied Commander Worf, "But their shielding system is so powerful that our scans are being completely reflected."

"Well there's something that we already know about them, that would mean that our scans aren't completely useless," said Picard with a tired smile that made Worf grimace.

After determining for sure that this was a race not yet contacted by humans, Picard made the ultimate decision.

"Open a channel, let's attempt to make first contact," said Picard, who was very excited.

He glanced around the bridge and was surprised to see that there was nobody that felt his same feelings of excitement. The brooding ship had successfully cast an ominous shadow on the crew of the Enterprise and left them feeling very uneasy and nervous. Feeling somewhat disappointed, Picard gave the official order.

"Make it so."

What neither Picard nor anybody else there knew was that that one signal would actually signal the beginning of the biggest event in the history of mankind.


	2. First Contact

Chapter 1: First Contact

The U.S.S. Welling was making its routine scan of the border of the Romulan neutral zone to see if there was anything that could be found of suspicion. The sensor sweeps were getting to be a bit boring, and they took a good 22 hours to complete. Captain John Kinkirk was all but happy. Kinkirk was a tall, sturdy man of about 6 feet and smooth blond hair. His ethics as a captain were never questioned. He was considered one of Starfleet's finest. While most sensor sweeps were long and boring, this one would turn out to be pretty eventful in its sixth hour.

"Captain, I am picking up a distress signal from inside the neutral zone. It appears to be a federation starship," said Lieutenant Donatra, who was of the Bajoran race.

"Onscreen," replied Kinkirk.

"It's audio only, sir."

Everyone in the entire bridge fell silent as one man's familiar voice came through the intercom.

"This is Captain…..Luc…Picard…we have drifted…being…attacked…Help us, please…anybody."

The captain was silent for a moment, pondering the message.

"That message," said Commander Kiren from her chair, "was not a federation standard message. It contains a pri-morph encrypting system that only the Romulans have been recorded as using."

She turned around in her seat and addressed the captain directly.

"This is some sort of trap," she said, "because the Romulans know that we are able to detect that encrypting system. They know that we're not stupid."

Captain Kinkirk was at a loss for words.

Being irresolute, he asked: "Why would they be doing this?"

Suddenly the lights went out on the bridge, leaving everyone in confusion. Perplexed, Kinkirk immediately gave the order to send a message to Starfleet.

"The transmission is being jammed by some unknown source, sir," said Donatra.

It was right then when the computer chimed in and announced: "Intruder Alert"

"Donatra, where are they?" asked Dimitri, the first officer who was in a panic and readied his phaser quickly.

Donatra, who was in an equal panic, could not find them.

"They have put some sort of virus, probably activated when we accepted the distress signal, into the main computer. How they got past the encryption key is beyond me, the problem is that all ships functions are down and we are dead in the water."

"All security teams, be on your guard, we have uninvited visitors. Red Alert," said the captain into his communicator.

But it was too late, every member of every security team was already dead.

The Enterprise crew waited in silence for the alien's response, but none came.

"I wonder what they're doing," said Riker.

"One way or another, we'll find out," implied a very confident Picard.

The enterprise loomed in space with that long circularly-shaped ship passing by their hull. Nothing happened for a while. But then…

"Sir, I am detecting numerous openings coming from the hull of that vessel," said Worf, "They appear to contain something that is equally as strong as the ship."

"This doesn't feel right," said Riker, obviously nervous.

Picard looked closer at the screen, and the openings got larger while still small in size compared to the massive ship to which they were faced. Then suddenly, several small ships came out of the openings. Worf quickly scanned them as they neared the ship.

"They're hostile," said Deanna.

"These ships have got some sort of energy weapon, and they are readying," shouted Worf.

Before Picard could give any order, the ships fired seemingly in unison and the Enterprise rocked like a boat on the sea in a violent storm.

"Shields up, ready phasers and torpedoes," ordered Picard.

"Shields up," replied Worf as the Enterprise shook again.

"Bring us about at impulse power and fire at will," snapped Picard.

A full spread of torpedoes and phasers blasted from the Enterprise as she turned around to face the unknown ship. All weapons had a direct impact on the smaller ships, but none seemed damaged.

"We did no damage to the other ships, not even so much as a shield breach or a hull fracture," said a confused yet panicky Worf.

"Who are these guys," asked Riker as the ship shook once more from the onslaught of fire from the small ships.

"Return fire," ordered Picard, "two full spreads at each of the ships."

The phasers came first, then the torpedoes. Each weapon hit the smaller ships at such rapidity yet none of the ships seemed affected.

"Send priority one message to Starfleet," ordered Picard, "tell them that we are under heavy attack by an unknown species."

"Aye sir," replied Worf.

The ship again shook violently, throwing Picard and all bridge occupants to the left side of the bridge, and then to the right. Nobody could speak because the ships wouldn't stop firing and the Enterprise kept shaking. After about one full minute of this, a hole was blown right through the middle of the bridge, sending debris everywhere and nearly sucking Picard right through. An emergency forcefield was quickly activated. And then everything stopped.

"Geordi, report," said Picard into his intercom.

"Sir, we're dead in the water," replied Geordi, "they successfully took out our shields and engines, and I'm trying to save life support. We won't survive another attack sir."

At that moment, the smaller ships backed off and re-attached themselves to the mother ship and continued on their course.

"Data, where are they headed," asked Picard?

"At their present course, they will cross Romulan Neutral zone in less than 12 hours."

"Geordi, what speed can you give us," asked Riker?

"I can give you impulse power at best," replied Geordi as he was fixing things up in engineering.

"Follow their direct course," ordered Picard, "Engage."

Starfleet headquarters and the academy were indeed an awe-inspiring sight to behold. Tourists from all over the nation would flock to the landmark just in front of the academy that had a statue of Zephram Cochran "reaching out to the future". It was indeed an awesome sight to behold, with shuttles coming in and out and students walking all over the campus. Admiral Kathryn Janeway had been stationed at Starfleet Headquarters after the decommissioning of her ship, the USS Voyager. She was head of communications and was therefore called in to observe a distress signal and another message from Captain Picard of the starship Enterprise.

"Admiral," said officer Lee, "early bird gets the word eh?"

"Watch it," snapped Janeway, "this is way too early for me, I haven't had my coffee yet and I am very grouchy. This distress signal had better be very important."

In an obviously groggy mood, Admiral Janeway listened intently to the distress signal. She immediately drew a confused look.

"This was audio only?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Lee, "nothing visual."

After listening to the other message twice, she came to a decision.

"Send the Vestal out there, track the Enterprise's position and follow them and, if possible, get a visual on the ship that they are attempting to follow."

"But ma'am," said Lee, "should we tell Captain Picard that we are sending a ship out there to follow him?"

"You can leave that to me," replied Janeway.

"Oh, and ma'am," said Lee just before Janeway left the room, "The Welling is twelve hours late for their inspection and we have heard nothing from them."

"Send them a message."

"Already tried that."

"And," replied an obviously aggravated Janeway?

"We've gotten nothing back from them."

"Well give them another twelve hours and if they don't show up, message admiral Hall or I," said Janeway, giving a sense of finality to the conversation.

Janeway immediately headed towards her headquaters with a nagging feeling. She had the feeling that something bad but also major was about to break out. A look of dread crossed her face for a moment. She then adjusted her course and went to go see Seven of Nine and her husband, Chakotay. They lived in a nice, peaceful house in an old fashioned city. Seven had become Janeway's mentor of sorts, and Chakotay her closest friend. She arrived at the quaint little house as dozens of memories from her journey with the Voyager flooded her mind. Tears immediately came streaming down her face. She brushed them aside and knocked on their door. She waited anxiously as the door opened to reveal a very familiar face, yet not one that she expected. It was Voyager's EMH program.

"Hello doctor," said Janeway.

"Greetings", replied the doctor, somewhat dispirited.

After a momentary pause, Janeway finally picked up the pace of their conversation.

"It's nice to see you again after all of this time."

"Indeed, you as well.

"I wasn't exactly expecting to see your face here, is there anything wrong?"

"Well, Seven contacted me after she told me that she was "contacted"."

"Contacted," said a surprised Janeway, "by who?"

Janeway immediately rushed over to Seven, who was sitting on a couch in her living room, apparently fine. Chakotay was sitting to her left in a recliner.

"Hello admiral," said Chakotay as he immediately rose to his feet.

"Please," snapped Janeway, "leave the formalities, my name is Kathryn."

"Yes, sir," replied Chakotay as he sat back down.

Janeway saw Seven sitting on the sofa evidently distraught. When Seven saw Janeway in the corner of her eye, she instantaneously straightened up and put on a smile, rose to her feet and greeted Janeway. Janeway, feeling sympathetic, sat Seven back down onto the couch.

"What happened," asked Janeway?

"It was probably not anything of vital importance," she hastily replied.

"There is no need for being silent about it, Seven," said Janeway, who was deeply concerned, "what happened?"

After a brief moment of reluctance, Seven finally gave in.

"Do you remember Kes the Ocampan?"

"Of course I do, what are you driving at," asked Janeway?

"Well I believe that I am experiencing something similar to what she experienced a while back, only I do not have her psychic abilities."

"What are you talking about," asked Janeway, who was very confused?

"It is only because I am half-borg," replied Seven in a very cryptic manner.

"Well I don't understand," said Janeway, getting more confused by the second, "Was it the Borg or the Borg Queen that contacted you?"

Seven paused and very solemnly replied,

"No."

The Enterprise moved slowly forward in space, with a very confused crew and an agitated captain. The lounge of the Enterprise was enormous and beautiful. From the outset it looked like the woods of Africa with trees lining the walls and a select few in the middle. There was a children's area to the left of the lounge where children could do practically anything that they wanted, and some adults would observe if not for their children than to enjoy the variety of bright colors which could lighten anybody's mood for the day. To the right was the adult's area of the lounge, with several benches, sofa's, a spa, and a holographic screen that could depict any scene perfectly with sounds and senses together. The scene on display this particular day was the Pacific Ocean's shore. For Captain Picard, it would lighten his mood because he actually felt like he was there on the beach in the heat of the sun hearing the sound of the waves. On this day though, there was nobody in the lounge because it had been reserved for Counselor Deanna Troi and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Deanna had been noticing that Picard had been a bit distressed over the past couple of days, so she reserved the area for the two of them and had Picard pick the scene.

"Do you like the Pacific Ocean," began Deanna?

Picard sat in silence for a moment, taking the wonder of the place.

"Oh yes, many childhood memories," replied Picard in a wistful and reminiscent voice, "As a child I would go with my brother Robert and my sister-in-law Marie. Those were some of the best days of my life."

He started to laugh a little bit.

"My brother and I would go in full clothing and run as fast as we could into the ocean with it being as cold as it was. We were fools. We were about 12 years old. Marie would sit on a beach blanket and try to tan, but my brother and I would never let her because we always thought that trying to make your skin darker was pretty pointless and boring because it took a long time. We would take her and literally drag her into the waters kicking and screaming. She would yell and curse at us, all in good fun of course, and we would have a great time just playing with each other in the ocean for hours and hours while never getting tired of each other. Good times. The beach looked best when viewed at sunset. Almost every weekend, we would get out of the water just to look at the awe-inspiring sight of the vast sunset being reflected onto the water in the darkness of the night. It was simply beautiful. Marie would always ask my brother and I how there could not be a God out there in the universe. And I must admit that, while viewing the sunset on the ocean, it was almost impossible not to ask myself the same question."

Deanna smiled while Picard sat in reverie, remembering his childhood.

"I am going to miss my brother a lot. Ever since he died in that fire on the farm, there has been a profound sense of emptiness that always seems to permeate my being when I am alone."

Deanna, who was a good listener, finally replied,

"It sounds like you and your brother had a close relationship."

"Oh yes," replied Picard, "only until I left to join the academy and leave home. He thought that I was incredibly arrogant. He thought that I was putting myself in danger, and he was right. He just didn't appreciate the thrill of the adventure. But he was my brother and I loved him very much through the good times and the tough times.

"But that's not what's been on your mind though has it," replied Deanna.

"No," said Picard in a very somber tone, "I had a dream the other night, and yet I'm not completely sure as to whether it was a total dream. It was, shall we say, quite disturbing."

"Well what happened," asked Deanna who was obviously curious?

Picard sat for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"Computer," said Picard, "activate holoprogram Picard two seven alpha tango."

At that moment, the scene went from being heavenly and beautiful to being very dank, dark and cold. I was the interior of a Borg cube. Deanna was alarmed, trying to assemble her feelings. A look of fear crossed Picard's face as he took in the vast yet dreary scene.

"I don't know what they are up to, but they are up to something," said Picard.

There was a momentary pause.

"Did they contact you," asked Deanna?

"Not them," replied Picard, "her."

"The queen," asked Deanna?

"Yes. Those microchips that every Starfleet officer is required to wear that will deplete any information of Starfleet from the user's brain upon assimilation are apparently not as fool-proof as we thought. I believe that she is getting closer and closer to deciphering them but she needs my help."

"Is that what has been bothering you, captain?"

"Of course," replied Picard in a cheeky tone, "She's coming for me, and I am not ready for her."

Alarmed, Deanna said,

"We should put the ship at full alert. Meanwhile I encourage you to get some rest and read something. Relax. Stuff like this happens all of the time, but if you are absolutely sure that she will be coming for you, we need to alert Starfleet and put this ship at full alert."

Picard stood up and gazed at an alcove on the three dimensional screen.

"I made this program and several others right after I had been retrieved by my crew from the Borg ship and I do not even know why I made it."

He paused for a moment and reached out to touch the side of the alcove, which was impossible.

"Get some rest," said Deanna as she laid her hand tenderly onto his shoulder.

"That will not be necessary, counselor. We will continue to follow this unknown ship to the neutral zone."

While still obviously in distress, he ended the program and walked out of the lounge before Deanna could even say another word to him.

Picard took the turbolift to the bridge, and was greeted by Data with some very good news.

"Captain, the USS Vestal is here to keep an eye out for the Enterprise, and Captain Dowling recommends we alter course and go to the nearest starbase for repairs and let his ship do the rest."

"Thank you Mr. Data," said Picard as he sat in his command chair, "Mr. Worf, inform the Captain that we are very grateful for his assistance, but that we will follow the ship along with him."

"Aye, sir," replied Worf as he sent the message.

Admiral Janeway, back on Earth, had taken Seven to a nearby hospital when she was called into Starfleet headquarters by Officer Roy who informed her that they had a visual on the strange ship that the Vestal and the Enterprise was following. Very anxious, she walked into the building and was greeted once again by Officer Lee.

"Admiral," said Lee, "This is a ship that we have never seen before. It is not in Starfleet's logs, yet it was in the former USS Voyager's."

Startled, Janeway made her way to the main viewscreen and told Officer Lee to activate the visual. About five seconds later, a ship appeared onscreen which she knew all to well. She was very shocked, and it instantly confirmed to Janeway that what Seven had gone through had been real, not just something psychological. She immediately called a meeting with Starfleet's top admirals, communications experts, and weapons experts.

"Gentlemen," she began as she showed them the visual on the unknown ship, "This is what the Enterprise has encountered near the Romulan neutral zone. I can tell you right now that they are not here on a mission of peace. I had several encounters with them while on Voyager and let me tell you that if they are on a mission against the federation or anybody else, we will not be able to stop them. The Borg are afraid of them, which means we should be doubly afraid. We need to alert all of our ships and tell them to go to full alert."

"But Admiral," said Admiral Crispin, "do they have a name?"

Janeway paused for a moment and replied,

"They have no official name, but the Borg called them Species 8472."


End file.
